And now through the green gloom swims a boy--naked and grey skinned, his eyes large and black, churning through the water with webbed, clawed hands.

"Hi?"

"Hi! You're weird looking!"

"No you!"

"It's okay! Being weird is cool! Everyone at school looks like me. It's cool seeing weirdoes!"

"Still the weird one. Your top half is all humany. And are those scales? Like a fish?"

"No, they're scales like a mer. Fish scales are small, and not special. Mine are special."

"You do look kinda pretty," he says matter a factly. "You mer?"

"I am very pretty and a mer. I'm Oshin!" She pronounces it like 'ocean'.

The boy giggles at the name. "I'm Seal. Or Michael."

He swims closer, examining the other child intently. 

"Why are you named Seal? There are already seals!" 

Oshin stares right back.

"There's already an ocean," he retorts.

Oshin sticks her tongue out, playfully. "It's spelled different, so it is different."

"I'm Seal because I go on land, so nuuuuuh."

"Land? I've never been on land! What's it like? Do you have to have all those bits to go on land?"

"What? You mean my legs?"

"What's legs?"

"Things for walking. Like crabs?"

Oshin gasps. "Those spindly things are legs!? Wow!"

"My legs are way better," he says, flexing them.

"They're certainly bigger. My tail is better for swimming though."

Suddenly, something breaks through the shining ceiling of the world, trailing bubbles in its wake. A boy, about as dressed as Seal, with rainbow patterns covering his skin and irises. Orienting himself with confident strokes, his cheeks bulging with air, he glances between the other two children, before pointing towards the surface.

Oshin, amazed by the newcomer, heads to the surface, though bobs worriedly just below.

"Hey Michael," the boy says to Michael when he surface.

He briefly submerges again.

"She's beautiful!" he says when his head pops up again.

Oshin coils into her tail, looking up at the surface like it is a scary beast.